An Eye-Opening Perspective on Context-Switching

I just wanted to share one of the biggest a-ha moments I’ve had when it comes to context-switching.

I used to think context-switching meant alternating between discussions, phone calls, errands, computer work, and house-cleaning. You know…how you walk around in circles all day doing a variety of tasks, but never really GETTING anywhere?

But Todd Herman has shown me how there are actually contexts within contexts, and I realized that I do this kind of switching way too often.

For example, let’s say I’m writing this post on my computer. And then I see an email has come in, so I switch over to Gmail to check that email. It’s a question from someone asking if I can meet on Tuesday at 12. So I quickly open my calendar to check. Then I add it to my calendar, reply to the person, and get back to this post. I just switched contexts.

Now, it might not seem like a big deal because I’m still on my computer, and it only took a minute, but let’s look at this chart Todd made:

When we are working on two things at a time, we lose 20% of our time just to the switching, which means that the time we have to devote to our projects is severely restricted. And look what happens when we have five projects going on at once!

That is why we feel we get nothing done. We’re spending way too much time “just checking” social media or email. We have a hard time closing off distractions and focusing on the projects that will move us closer to our goals. We have a hard time even articulating what those goals are sometimes.

That’s why I am committed to my next 90-Day Year.

It’s a framework Todd has set up to help us set a specific goal we can achieve in 90 days, create projects that will help us to reach that goal, and make progress every day by keeping our focus (and not switching contexts).

If you haven’t signed up yet, the video series is PHENOMENAL, and it’s only available for a limited time.